


Fuzzy Logic

by Suzie_b



Series: Chaos Theory [3]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-10-29 03:36:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17800340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suzie_b/pseuds/Suzie_b
Summary: Cid and Vincent take on a job for Reeve only to find that things aren't exactly what they expected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elfen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elfen/gifts).



> So! Here it is. The sequel to Chaos Theory. The title is a working title and might change if I come up with something different.

Vincent stepped out into the sunlight, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the brightness outside the airship. "It's certainly remote," he told the man behind him. "You're certain that this is where Reeve's information said it would be?"

"Of course I am," Cid answered as his boots hit the surface of the moss and gravel strewn cliff they'd landed on. "Should be in that cave if what he gave us is right. Ever wonder where the hell he gets this shit? …not that now ain't a hell of a time to wonder."

"And you have the explosives? If this is what he says it is then we'll have to destroy the experiment whether it's alive or not." Vincent looked at the blackness of the mouth of the cave in front of them but it revealed nothing. "I'd rather not leave anything here for anyone else that might be inclined to follow up on the research."

"So let's go." Cid took one last drag from his cigarette and then dropped it at his feet to be crushed by the toe of his boot. "The sooner we get this done the sooner we get the hell outta here. I've got enough explosives here to take out whatever's in there," he assured.

As Vincent walked through the cave's entrance, he noted the change in temperature. It was much cooler inside, which was to be expected, but it was also much dryer. To his surprise, the rough rock of the walls and floor soon gave way to smooth surfaces that were lit by artificial light from above.

"I'll be damned," Cid muttered. "Looks like we got the place. Machinery's still runnin', too, hear that?"

A dull hum whispered through the cave from somewhere within its depths and was repeated by the rows of equipment. "I hear it." Vincent wasted no time in walking toward a computer screen that displayed a readout and found a place to plug in the small drive he'd brought to gather the information they were about to destroy. "Perhaps you should set the charges. As soon as we're done I want this place to disappear."

Cid smirked and picked up the bag that held the explosives before wandering off to place them. He worked silently for the space of several minutes before giving a low whistle. "Hey, Vincent? You need to take a look at this."

Vincent looked away from the screen reluctantly, then went in search of Cid and whatever it was that he'd found. "What is it? Did you find..." His words faded away as he walked to where the pilot stood between towering walls of equipment that seemed to have no purpose until he saw what the man stood in front of.

Cid looked up at the cylindrical glass tank in front of him and shook his head. "I know what we came here for, but I don't know about this."

The reason became clear as Vincent peered at the occupant of the incubation pod- for that was what it appeared to be- and he stepped forward for a closer look. He had expected to find some left over monster or an adult specimen at the least. What he saw was a girl of perhaps fifteen years with dark hair and pale skin who appeared to be sleeping peacefully, if somewhat like a marionette with tubes and wires for strings. "It's a child." He reached forth a gloved hand to place it upon the glass, finding it warm to the touch. "She's alive."

"Yeah, so there's our problem," Cid pointed out. "I don’t think I could feel right about blowin’ this place up with her in it."

"Clearly Reeve's information was incomplete." Vincent replied. "Can we move this? I don't think it would be a very good idea to wake her now." 

"You think?" Cid's attention was taken by the question of moving the unit and it wasn't until he'd had a good look at the thing's base that he nodded. "Yeah, I think we can manage, it's raised from the floor enough to get under it and lift it. I'll probably have to wire it directly in to keep it powered up or it's gonna shut down, but... Shit! She's movin'!"

The sound of cracking glass brought Vincent's attention back to the girl. Her eyes were open now, revealing the color of glowing amber, but showed no signs of focus. A crash signaled the release of the pod's water but the wave of heat that radiated through the cave was nearly pure steam. The lights directly overhead to sparked and exploded and the surrounding equipment suddenly drained of power. Wings of flame unfurled from the girl's back and lifted her upward before she dove for the two men with little more warning than an inhuman cry.

"I coulda been wrong about this!" Cid dove out of the way of the initial attack and then looked over to find Vincent. "She keeps this up and she's gonna set off those charges."

Vincent raised his gauntlet-covered hand to fend off the heat as he jumped out of the way. Instinct brought his hand to his gun but he didn't pull it. Despite the transformation, this was still a child he was dealing with and he could almost sense the fear that had prompted the attack. "Stay down," he told Cid as he stepped out from the cover he'd taken.

"Hey, great idea," Cid remarked. "Cause goin' out to ask her if she wanted a cookie or somethin' was my first damn idea. What the hell are you gonna do?" Clearly, he disapproved.

"Get her to stop." Vincent didn't have to wait long, but instead of moving out of the way of danger he stood his ground. "You're safe. We're not going to hurt you but if you keep doing this you're going to hurt all of us."

At first Vincent's words seemed to have no impact as the girl turned her attention toward him and dove for another attack. He was beginning to regret not having his gun in his hand until the heat around him faltered and his attacker began to fall toward the floor.

"What the hell did you do?" Cid was already rushing forward, though there was little hope that he'd reach the girl in time to keep her from hitting the floor.

Vincent reached out to catch the unconscious form in his arms and pulled her against his chest. "I didn't present a threat," he answered as he stood and pulled his cloak up to wrap about his burden to keep her warm. "I'll get the drive, you finish setting the charges. Someone has to have been watching over her for her to have survived, I want to get her out of here before they return."

Cid nodded and hurried off to finish his end of the job. "I hope you can keep her under control until we land. Glad we didn't have to fight her, though. Leave it to that lunatic to use a kid."

With the girl settled against his shoulder, Vincent walked over to disconnect the drive. He didn't comment on Cid's statement. He knew too well that Hojo had used children in his experiments before, even his own. "Which makes me wonder if there's anyone looking for you... or if he's the only one who would know you existed." Not that he would have an answer to those questions any time soon. Instead, he focused on getting his unconscious burden onto the airship.

The sound of Cid closing the outter door and the sudden revving of the previously idling engines served as a warning that they would be taking off soon and Vincent hurried to settle the girl in one of the small passenger rooms. He took the time to tuck a blanket around her, noting the dryness of the knee-length gown she wore. At least he was spared having to change her into something dry.

Vincent left the cabin and locked the door from the outside before heading toward the bridge. The engine volume increased and he felt the pitch of the floor as the airship took off as he opened the door to step through. It wasn't until they were safely in the air and after the shockwave from the explosion that Vincent made any attempt to make his presence known, but not for any need to keep from interrupting- Cid had piloted through much worse. "That took longer than I expected, did you find something else?" 

Cid locked the wheel in place and then held up a thick folder for Vincent's view. "Thought I'd pick this up just in case whoever was working on this left things out of those files. Didn't look through it much but there's pictures and a couple of disks. Figured I'd get started on that while you hook that drive up. I wanna get a look at what we got before we turn it over. I got a suspicion I wanna rule out. The kid still out?" 

"She is." Vincent waited while Cid opened a panel and inserted the disk into what appeared to be a rather beat up and old built in computer. "Suspicion? Cid, are you sure that thing isn't going to melt the evidence?"

Cid laughed and pointed to the screen which was surprisingly clear. "You ever notice how all the equipment that ever gets stolen or that has the info other people wanna get at always looks like they just took it outta the box? Well, who's gonna think that holds anything but outta date maps?" The pilot's attention went back to the screen and he read several sections before shaking his head. "Well, looks like we won't be lookin' for this kid's family... The only names on here are yours and Lucrecia's, and then there's somethin' about sentient genomes. Don't know what the hell that is but things like that usually translate into oh-shit for us. These numbers... Vincent?" Cid reached out to wave a hand in front of the gunman's face. "Hey, what's got you so pissed off?"

Vincent didn't speak right away. Instead, his eyes searched the screen for any evidence to contradict what he'd seen. "Those are the names of the subjects he took the DNA from to create... whatever it is he was trying to create." 

"So... damn." Cid's face took on the expression that always indicated he was putting things together- oddly, it usually had the effect of making him look grumpy enough to be left alone. "Ok, I get why he'd use your DNA for this shit. You explained that bit, so he wanted to be able to bond things to her like they did with you. Why'd he use that woman's? Unless he was just tryin' to make sure you didn't kill the kid before he got a chance to use her. Oh, and she's got a name. At least her project does. Angel."

"I know what you're thinking, Cid, and you're wrong. She's not my child. She's an experiment. We don't know what her exterior hides beyond what we’ve seen or what she was meant for." Vincent reached out to close the panel, wanting to hide the display and end the discussion.

"So were you, right? She didn't have any more say in this than you did," Cid pointed out, watching Vincent all the while. "Look, it's not like I'm sayin' we should keep her, but I think we should let her wake up before we take her to Reeve. All that equipment he's got'll probably set her off. Make her think she's gonna be hurt or something. Besides, look at how she met us. You want her to think that and guys who talk to the world through toy animals is normal?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day had given way to early evening by the time they reached home and Cid went into the kitchen to make tea and go over the information they'd gathered, leaving Vincent to put Angel, as they'd decided to call her, in the guest room. The house was bigger than its destroyed predecessor. Cid had insisted on doing some of the work himself and had been responsible for the interior of both guest rooms and their own bedroom, though he never explained why he'd insisted upon doing so. Vincent had his suspicions but would never confront the pilot on his sentimentality.
> 
> Upon his return Vincent found Cid just where he expected him to be- sitting at the table with an untouched cup of tea to one side, cigarette in his mouth, and the laptop in front of him. "Alright, I get the whole sentient genome thing- that's what this idiot's callin' the Jenova cells. It's like they're a hive with one mind... What I don't get, is what the hell a xenoform is and what it's got to do with you and her, cause you're mentioned about a dozen times in these papers and all over the damn place in the files on this disk." Clearly, he hadn't missed Vincent's entrance.

Day had given way to early evening by the time they reached home and Cid went into the kitchen to make tea and go over the information they'd gathered, leaving Vincent to put Angel, as they'd decided to call her, in the guest room. The house was bigger than its destroyed predecessor. Cid had insisted on doing some of the work himself and had been responsible for the interior of both guest rooms and their own bedroom, though he never explained why he'd insisted upon doing so. Vincent had his suspicions but would never confront the pilot on his sentimentality.

Upon his return Vincent found Cid just where he expected him to be- sitting at the table with an untouched cup of tea to one side, cigarette in his mouth, and the laptop in front of him. "Alright, I get the whole sentient genome thing- that's what this idiot's callin' the Jenova cells. It's like they're a hive with one mind... What I don't get, is what the hell a xenoform is and what it's got to do with you and her, cause you're mentioned about a dozen times in these papers and all over the damn place in the files on this disk." Clearly, he hadn't missed Vincent's entrance.

"It means beings like Chaos," Vincent answered before sitting down across from Cid. "They exist on a different level than we do, which is about all that I understand. They're supposed to be intelligent, alive, able to communicate, but I have no experience with that." He picked up the cup that had been left waiting for him and looked into it. "Is there any explanation as to why she was created?"

"Why'd that asshole ever create anything? Doesn't matter, it always included hurtin’ people and destroyin’ the damn planet," was Cid's response and his tea was steadily ignored in favor of staring at the screen through occasional exhalations of smoke. "Well hell, look at that." The pilot pointed at the screen. "Looks like a materia list... they're broken up into groups. You know how many of these xenoforms there are?"

Vincent got up, leaving his cup behind in order to walk to Cid's side of the table and peer over the man's shoulder. "I have no idea." His gauntlet covered hand rested on the pilot's shoulder as he leaned in to get a better look. The list indicated that each materia fell under certain groups each headed by names that were a mixture of familiar and unknown.

Without warning, Cid reached up to grab hold of Vincent's hand and pulled the gunman around the chair and into his lap. The difference in height was made up as Vincent was shifted just enough to be sitting across Cid's thighs. "Y'know what I think? This's sayin' that each of those materia are related to a certain aspect of these xenoforms- that is one fucked up word- and that's why it has whatever power it has. And if he's goin' on about this so much in these files, that's gotta have something to do with the kid, so we just need to figure out which one he used, which should be easy. Right? Not like our cells are bottomless bags, you can only fit so much shit in there."

Vincent made a sound of surprise and turned his attention toward Cid's face. "You could ask, you know," he pointed out before looking back toward the screen. "You think he was trying to bond a xenoform with her? Obviously fire, but to what end? Phoenix? If he couldn't become a god he at least wanted to become immortal?"

Cid smirked as he took time to crush his cigarette out in the ashtray beside him. "I could, but then you wouldn't get those looks on your face or make those sounds." He shrugged and turned back toward the screen. "Well, it woulda kept him alive long enough to figure out a way to accomplish his other plans, right?"

Vincent had been about to speak but the faint scent of burning fabric wafting in took his attention. "Cid? I smell something burning. Are you cooking?"

"Hey, I ain’t that bad…." Cid’s indignant look transformed into alarm and he glanced toward the hall leading to the guest rooms. "Shit! The kid!"

Vincent was already up and heading for the door and Cid wasn’t far behind him. He reached the door and flung it open to reveal the room in perfect order aside from the curtains. Those were in the process of being consumed by flames that threatened the frames of the window they had once covered.

Cid ran to the window, pulling the curtains down and stomping on them until they were merely smoldering remnants. "Guess she don’t like ’em, either," he muttered as he unlatched the window, opened it, and picked singed cloth up to toss it out.

Vincent scanned the room, noting the empty bed before spotting the girl crouching in a corner behind the bedside table. He relaxed once it became obvious that she had taken that position in fear instead of preparation. "You don’t have to hide, we’re not going to hurt you."

"He’s right, y’know. We had plenty of time to do that while you were out if that’s what we wanted to do." Cid gestured toward the window with a hint of a grin. "And now I owe ya for getting’ rid of those damn frilly curtains."

The girl studied them from her crouched position as if unwilling to give up the little protection it offered her. "Who… who are you? Why did you bring me here? If you’re not…" She shook her head and put on a defiant expression that was far from convincing. "He said no one would let me live, so why should I trust you?"

"Stubborn," Cid observed before turning a brief grin in Vincent’s direction "Reminds me of someone." Before his words could be commented on he shrugged. "Maybe because you’re still breathin’? Look, my name’s Cid, this is Vincent. You got a name you wanna be called? Trust me, it’s one of the few times you get a choice. I get called all kinds of shi…"

"Cid." Vincent’s voice made up in warning what it lacked in volume and he hoped the stern look that accompanied it was enough to back up the message. Still, the girl’s expression remained unchanged and far too familiar. It took a few seconds and a deep breath to steady his voice before he spoke again. "It might be hard for you to believe, but the person who told you that wasn’t being truthful. We have every intention of insuring your survival. …but it would be nice to have a name to call you."

"Angel. I think. It’s what he called me when he talked to me." Confusion won over the defiance she had been projecting. "I’m not really sure, he didn’t talk to me much. He talked around me, warned me about being found, talked about how brilliant he was…"

"Sounds like a real exciting guy." Cid nodded at the name and held out a hand toward Angel. "Well, c’mon. You can’t hang out there all day. Well, you could, but I bet it’d get real boring and you’re probably gonna be hungry soon. He ever let you out of that container?"

"Cid…" Vincent sighed but said nothing further. He couldn’t really come up with a good way to ask that question and at least Cid’s method was direct and hard to misunderstand. Instead, he turned his attention to gathering information by observation. There were needle marks along the girl’s arms and legs and his guess was that Angel’s response to Cid’s question wasn’t going to be a positive one.

"He may have when I was asleep." Another few seconds were spent in studying them before she finally stood. "I remember feeling heavy sometimes when I was asleep. …that’s how it feels now." Angel might have said more, but a sound coming from her midsection took her attention and she looked down. "…am I supposed to make that sound?"

Cid’s frown slowly disappeared and, as soon as Angel took the offer of his hand, he gestured toward the door. "Means yer empty, kid. Come on, I’ll find ya some food and…" A grin was turned toward Vincent but he shook his head. "I’ll go find you some clothes. Can’t have you runnin’ around in that. People are already too damn curious about what goes on here."

"And you being seen acquiring clothes for a young girl will help change that, of course," Vincent offered before following along into the kitchen. Cid was never a dull person, and his reactions were always well worth the effort to tease. Even in situations like this, or perhaps especially in these situations. Doing so certainly took Vincent’s mind from Angel’s origins.

"Empty?" Angel looked confused but, despite the slight uncertainty she displayed, remained relatively calm. Her interest seemed taken more by the contents of the kitchen than the men with her. "This is where you live," she stated. "Here? It’s different. Are you going to study me, too?"

"Hey, it sure as hell…" Cid paused and smirked. "Haha. Funny. Ain’t gonna hurt much though, is it? Might give ‘em something to think about." Angel’s question earned an instant frown and he urged the girl toward a chair. "No one’s gonna study anyone."

"We didn’t bring you here because we wanted to study you. We brought you here because we’re responsible for your safety now that we’ve taken you from that place. We have questions and a friend who may want to find out just what was done to you, but you won’t be treated as a test subject." Vincent leaned back against the counter, well out of Cid’s way but with a good vantage point from which to watch them both.

Angel relaxed a little, but not enough to look completely comfortable in her new situation. "So… no more tanks, no more … tingles to make me move… You two are a lot different than I was lead to believe people would be."

"Yeah, well, you’re gonna get that a lot." It took Cid very little time to place a plate of food on the table for Angel. Once he was done he wiped his hands on a towel and tossed the thing into the sink, obvious anger on his face. "No. No more of that. I’m gonna go see if I can find something for you to wear. Vincent’ll stay with ya so if you got questions…" He glanced over at the other man as he spoke. “Won’t take but a minute. Shop’s right down the street. I’ll grab a few things’n be right back.” 

Vincent nodded, though he never moved from his spot. It was far easier to watch both the door and the girl from where he was standing. "Cid is right. No one is going to do that to you again. You can relax here. You’re safe."

Angel walked toward the table, hand reaching out to the back of the chair but she stopped. The laptop, still open on the table, became her new destination and she paused to gaze at the screen.

"For now, you should eat. You can look at this later after you’ve had some time." Vincent moved just enough to reach over and close the laptop and pull out the chair the plate had been sat in front of. 

Angel stared at Vincent for a moment and then sat. "You mean you don’t want me upset until you can decide whether I’m going to be a problem or not." There was no question in her words, but she appeared to accept the situation and began to eat.

"My answer would be yes. Cid would tell you that because you didn’t harm us when you had the chance, you won’t in the future because you don’t want to." Vincent shrugged, knowing he probably could have been a bit gentler in his own answer. "You have to decide what to believe."

Angel nodded and fell silent as she studied her food. Each morsel was touched and sniffed before she ate, and her expression gave away the fact that she was inexperienced at the task. "Have you decided what to do with me yet?"

The tone of the question made Vincent frown, but he did have to give Angel credit for knowing her situation. Cid would probably disapprove of the fact that she so easily assigned ownership of her fate to them. "We haven’t. You’re the one who’ll have to decide where you want to go. The person who told us where you were would probably be willing to take you in…"

"Vincent’s talkin’ about a guy who introduced himself to us through a damn toy cat. Nice guy, but that‘s gotta be a sign of something." Cid let the door close behind him and walked over to place a bag on the table. "I’m hopin’ everything in there’s pretty self explanatory. If not, ask Vincent." His grin gave away just how much he enjoyed the imagined outcome of that potential situation. “Shop owner’s a friend. She’s got one about your age- I guessed- so it should all fit.” 

"My decision…" It seemed a new concept, but Angel spent no more time on it. Instead, she picked up the bag and looked into it. "I think I can manage. …why would I have to ask Vincent?"

Vincent shot his best glare in Cid’s direction, but it lacked any real anger. "I suppose you’ll have to field any other questions." He’d just let Cid try to top that one. It was fair, after all.

Cid waited until Angel was out of the room to change before smacking himself on the forehead with the palm of one hand. "Shit." It wasn’t until he dropped into a chair and had lit a cigarette that he spoke again. "You know anything about givin’ the birds n bees talk?"

For a moment, all Vincent could do was stare at Cid. "Are you suggesting I give her this talk?" Much to his dismay, he couldn’t quite keep the horror out of his voice. "I don’t think I have to tell you how bad of an idea that is."

"…shit…" Cid groaned and rubbed his forehead with the hand he’d previously slapped it with. "Alright, we just need to come up with someone who’s easy to talk to and who won’t laugh their asses off at the situation."

"We don’t know anyone like that," Vincent pointed out as he sat across from Cid and crossed his arms over his chest. "…shit…"

"Well, one out of two, I guess. Tifa?" Cid suggested. “I mean, she’s probably either gonna tell us to figure it out or figure that we’re gonna butcher it and do it out of pity for the kid.” 

“We do owe her a visit. Hopefully she sees it as a trade off. She gets to give us smug, knowing looks and we get out of a potentially embarrassing situation.” Vincent agreed. “...it will also give Angel the opportunity to meet other children. Children who will know how to handle themselves if things go badly.” 

“She’ll be fine.” Cid reassured, waving his hand as if doubt were an annoying insect. “We’ll go t’Edge tomorrow, ok? Things’ll be fine, trust me. I fireproofed those rooms myself.” 

“... you did?” Vincent asked, unable to hide his disbelief. 

“Who the hell d’ya think I am? I don’t take chances with people I care about. Ain’t many of ‘em to begin with.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it for what I have pre-written. It'll be a bit between this and the next update while I work on updates for my other WIPs. Hopefully not too long!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Insights, decisions, and plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here's the deal. I found another chapter that I'd pre-written and realized that I needed a lead in for it. I'll be overhauling what I have and then posting that and THEN it'll be a bit before anything else because I have other projects that are waiting on updates. <3

It took at least one round of Cid explaining underclothes to Angel before she mastered dressing herself. Much to the pilot’s relief, once the clothing how was settled, the girl didn’t seem to care about the whys. 

“I like this.” Angel decided as she strode out into the kitchen clad in jeans, a short sleeved t-shirt, and socks. “It doesn’t have the draf…” 

“Ok! We don’t need an explanation!” Cid interjected before glaring at his lover for the stifled laughter. “Just glad y’finally got the hang of it.” 

Vincent’s expression suggested that he didn’t know at all why he’d be being glared at, though he nodded at the announcement. “You’ll like the people we’re going to visit. Two are around your age. Perhaps a little younger.” 

Angel appeared briefly distrusting and then nodded. “Is this the man you were telling me about?” 

“Wha… Oh! Nah. We won’t be visitin’ Reeve for a few days yet. Wanna give him a week t’go over all the info we found anyway.” Cid shook his head. “These friends are …” He interrupted himself with a laugh. “Y’know, for a second I was gonna call Cloud ‘more normal’ and we both know that one’s not true.” He told Vincent before looking back at Angel. “It’s a different group of friends. And.” he continued. “If we’re gonna go I need t’get some repairs done to the Zephyr. She’s small enough to put down in the back without us havin t’tie you two to the hull to make it a group trip.” 

“I thought you were done.” Vincent replied as he picked the dishes up from Angel’s meal. “There’s no need to worry. So far I have heard Cid threaten to tie every friend he has to the hull of at least one airship and he has yet to do so.” 

“You do that?” Angel’s eyes were wide. “But that sounds like fun! Up in the air with nothing below to catch you. It would be like really flying.” 

“Y’hear that? She gets that one from me.” Cid informed, giving a firm nod as if he were not only proud of the statement, but sure of it. “C’mon, I’ll show ya how fuel intakes work and, if yer interested in that kinda flyin’, I can introduce you to another one of my babies.” 

“Cid, I don’t think it would be a good idea. The Bronco hasn’t been off the ground since…” Vincent began. 

“Since I ain’t had time t’rebuild that damn engine. Besides, it’d be a great first vehicle.” He assured as he motioned for Angel to sit in the chair in front of him. “Need t’put your hair up first, though.” 

“Why wouldn’t it be a good idea? The machine we were in before was very sturdy.” Angel put in as she sat. 

Vincent looked between the two before settling on watching Cid make quick work of tying Angel’s hair into a tail. The result was a little too familiar and he shook his head to break the spell. “If Cid built it, you can be assured that it is. However, this as a plane he’s speaking of, not an airship. It isn’t contained.” 

“Y’worried I’m gonna let her fall out? It’s got harnesses and I don’t let anyone fly until they learn how. Besides, already had one group of knuckleheads come in and get her wrecked.” Cid teased before tapping the top of Angel’s head. “Let’s go.” 

Vincent watched the two walk outside and considered the empty kitchen before pouring tea for himself and taking to the porch so that he could watch the repairs from a distance. 

When it came to explaining things, Cid was surprisingly patient. Vincent had experienced this firsthand and was now witnessing it from his vantage point. Angel appeared to be an enthusiastic pupil. Her excitement- conveyed in all too familiar body language- would have delighted her m…

_No. I can’t think of her like that. …but is it true? If it had been her instead of Sephiroth… What would you think, I wonder? About this child who reminds me so much of you? Not that you ever got to meet..._

Vincent shook his head to clear it of those thoughts. It was different then. Sephiroth was intended, if for all the wrong reasons. Yet they were both experiments and he _knew_ what Lucrecia would have requested. 

_You would want to see her._ Vincent sighed. _You would want to meet the child that you had no say in creating, no matter what._

The repair appeared to be minor and, within a few minutes, Vincent watched Cid send Angel into the workshop with a bundle of rags, a task the girl seemed to do happily if her bouncing step were any indication. 

Once the pilot was within earshot, Vincent set his cup aside on the porch’s lone table. “I take it the repair was a small one?” 

“Yeah, just needed to replace a couple’a valves. Kid seemed interested enough in the mechanics. You look like you’ve been doin’ a whole lotta thinkin’, though. Everything alright?” Cid asked as he pulled off his gloves to drape them over the porch railing and sat down in the chair beside Vincent to wait on an answer. 

“I’m not sure.” Vincent answered without giving further explanation. 

“Well, I guess that’s understandable. You care t’explain it further or am I s’posed to guess? I can. I got some damn good guesses.” Cid offered. “I’ll give you a few seconds to decide.” 

Vincent huffed a laugh. “I can imagine.” He replied before shaking his head. “I was thinking about this situation. ...the list of genetic components.” He sighed as he tried to put his thoughts into words. “She’s an experiment, intended to further the ambitions of a monster. The same man who was responsible for Sephiroth, and yet Lucrecia never stopped wishing to see her son. I think, if she knew, she’d want to see her. That she’d want me to see her as something more than the tool of a monster.” 

“Seems sensible.” Cid agreed in that ‘turning over the details’ tone that he took on when trying to solve a problem. “You know, there’s nothin’ t’say we can’t just take her to the cave. It might not be the same, but there’s still some part of her presence there, right? That’s what you told me. It’d at least take the weight of yer shoulders in that respect.” He lit a cigarette and took a long drag, then exhaled. “Look, I know it ain’t easy. I don’t think I’d be too damn happy about it, either. … but she’s a kid. It ain’t her fault she’s here or she is what she is.” 

“It’s just like you to think that way.” Vincent replied without malice. “You always treated me like a person…” 

“Because that’s what you are!” Cid interrupted. “We ain’t doin’ this one again, are we?” 

“No. I’ve learned to not argue with you. ...sometimes you even convince me.” Vincent assured. “I’ll try to see her the same way, too. For both of you.” 

“Learn to see yourself that way all the time, beautiful.” Cid replied before nodding. “Alright, guess that’s as much as anyone could ask. Looks like she’s done cleanin’ up. C’mon, we’ll get her familiar with the house so nothin’ else spooks her and we wake up to the house burnin down around us.”


End file.
